


Bartering for a Kiss

by knowyourincantations



Series: Sapphic September 2019 [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Bickering, Don't copy to another site, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/F, First Kiss, Harry Potter Epilogue What Epilogue | EWE, Hogwarts Eighth Year, Sapphic September, Sapphic September 2019
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-01
Updated: 2019-09-01
Packaged: 2020-10-04 11:56:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,489
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20470646
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/knowyourincantations/pseuds/knowyourincantations
Summary: Pansy has something to tell Ginny, but she wants something in return.





	Bartering for a Kiss

**Author's Note:**

> Kicking off Sapphic September 2019! Day 1. Written for the prompt: "I want you to kiss me."

Someone jostled Ginny’s shoulder. She turned, ready to tell them to shove off, only to find Pansy standing beside her. Her cheeks were pink and she appeared out of breath.

“Oh, it’s you,” Ginny said, deflating somewhat. It would have been nice to take out her frustration by snapping at someone.

Pansy scowled at her, but Ginny wasn’t in the least bothered. After months of being thrown together in their shared classes, mainly because no one was allowed to pair with their own house, and no one ever wanted to pair with Pansy, she’d grown quite fond of her.

Fond enough that everyone else had noticed and given her hell for it. She still owed Parvati a prank or two for the joke she’d made in the common room just the night before. Telling her to sod off to her special eighth-year common room had been a weak response at the time. She needed to do better.

Maybe it was her own fault. Maybe if she hadn’t abruptly stopped dating every boy to take her passing fancy, her time with Pansy wouldn’t have been so noticed.

No one commented much on Neville and Theo’s closeness after all, even though she knew for a fact they _were_ fooling around.

“That’s a fine way to greet someone,” Pansy huffed, drawing herself to her full height, which was still several inches shorter than Ginny. “Care to try again?”

Ginny rolled her eyes and bumped their shoulders together.

“Oh! Pansy, how _delightful_ to see you,” she said, in a mockingly high tone of voice. “It’s been forever since I saw you last, how ever did I survive?”

Pansy’s glare deepened as she folded her arms across her chest.

Ginny bit back a laugh. It was strange to think she’d once thought Pansy was intimidating, but she had been shorter then. Now she’d grown taller and Pansy had stayed the same, and Ginny had long since learned she was all bark and no real bite. Well, not a sharp bite at least.

“Okay, what?” Ginny asked, looking back out across the grounds. It was the first fine day in a while, and she still couldn’t decide if she wanted to risk flying out of bounds or not. Gryffindor and Ravenclaw were neck and neck for the house cup, and she didn’t relish getting caught and losing points. She could throttle the Hufflepuff captain for managing to schedule the pitch on the one fine day of the month.

“Forget it, wasn’t important,” Pansy said with a huff.

“Oh? You ran here to tell me, but it wasn’t important?” Ginny asked, admiring her profile while she wasn’t looking.

“Me? Run? Maybe you should go inside out of the sun, you’re delirious,” Pansy scoffed. “There’s nothing to tell.”

Thoroughly distracted from thoughts of flying and risking house points, Ginny stepped in front of her and stared her down.

“Alright, what do you want for it? You know I can’t stand when someone says they have something to tell me and then decides not to.”

Pansy stared up at her, looking momentarily startled before she recovered.

“What makes you think I want anything?” she asked.

Ginny scoffed to herself. She wouldn’t have wanted anything until Ginny had annoyed her. Now she knew she wouldn’t get whatever it was out of her without giving something in return. That was just how Pansy did things. It didn’t bother Ginny as much as it seemed to bother anyone else, but the negotiations were sometimes annoying.

Pansy could beat around the bush better than anyone she knew.

“I’ll bring you as my plus one to that stupid ball the Ministry is throwing at Easter,” she offered. Easy enough, she didn’t want to go. It rankled her that the only people close to her age that were invited were all known as ‘war heroes’ and entry was barred to everyone not on the guest list. It was a great chance for the seventh and eighth years to meet Ministry workers and look into jobs they might want to apply for, but it wasn’t fair that it was limited to the only people who didn’t actually need the extra help getting jobs after Hogwarts.

Elitism was not her thing, but she knew Pansy wanted to go, and it’d put her in a good mood for the rest of the year if she took her.

It would probably make the evening far more enjoyable for herself too. Win-win in her books.

For a moment, Pansy gaped at her, visibly thrown off balance again.

Ginny usually played the negotiation game with her a little longer before offering something she knew Pansy actually wanted. But if she got to see that wide-eyed startled look on Pansy’s face, she’d cut to the chase more often.

“I didn’t think you were even going to that,” Pansy finally said, her expression closing off like she suspected Ginny was teasing her.

“I wasn’t planning to,” Ginny said with a shrug. “Didn’t have anyone to go with, and I don’t really like those things.”

Pansy’s expression turned calculating. “But you’d go with me?”

It was the closest Ginny had come to being frank about that. The great number of things she’d do if Pansy was involved. With the way everyone was always joking about her interest in Pansy, she really didn’t think she had to spell it out.

“I offered, didn’t I?”

Pansy bit her lip for a moment, then looked around. “That’s still a month away.” She took Ginny’s hand and pulled her away, leading her towards the Greenhouses.

“So?” Ginny asked, wondering if whatever Pansy had been meaning to tell her was plant-related. She couldn't think what it would be, unless Pansy had caught Theo and Neville snogging there again.

“So, what if I want something now?” Pansy said, letting her hand go and turning to face her the moment they were tucked out of sight from everyone else out on the grounds.

Ginny perked up. This was a familiar situation, but a surprising one from Pansy. “Oh?”

She’d had her suspicions about where Pansy’s tastes lay, but never any proof. She was probably getting excited for nothing. Maybe she’d underestimated how annoyed Pansy was. Maybe she was deliberately misleading her just to get back at her. That was certainly her style, though she didn’t usually turn it against Ginny.

“What do you want?” Ginny asked.

Pansy glanced around again, then lifted her chin in an exaggerated display of confidence. So exaggerated that Ginny would have teased her for it any other time.

“I want you to kiss me,” Pansy said boldly. “Then I’ll tell you.”

Ginny held her breath for a moment, replaying the words to make sure she hadn’t imagined them. Then she released it and nodded. She wasn’t stupid enough to tease Pansy for this, or make her wait.

She closed the gap between them and cupped the side of Pansy’s face.

“Doesn’t seem a fair trade,” she murmured. “I get two things I want with no compromise.”

She let that sink in for a just a moment, until Pansy’s eyes widened, then she kissed her. Softly, chastely. Just a lingering peck.

When she leaned back, Pansy followed her forward for a moment, and Ginny leaned in and kissed her again. Pansy moved away after that.

“I thought those were all jokes,” she said.

Ginny groaned. It wasn’t difficult to figure out what she meant.

“Oh, they are jokes, as in, they’re teasing me for how I feel.”

“Oh,” Pansy said softly. “I should have thought of that.”

“I thought you had,” Ginny admitted. “What was this then? How were you going to shrug this off if I laughed in your face?”

Pansy stepped back and shrugged. “I was going to say it was designed to be something you wouldn’t want to do, so you’d never know what I was going to tell you.”

“Smart, defensive,” Ginny said, fixated by the way Pansy licked her lips. “What were you going to tell me?”

“Oh, the Quidditch pitch is free,” Pansy said distractedly. “The Hufflepuffs cancelled their practice. I thought you might want to go flying without risking the house cup by flying out of bounds and getting caught.”

“You...” The thoughtfulness of Pansy rushing through the castle to find her and tell her, probably right after hearing about it, rendered her speechless for a moment. On a whim, she leaned in and kissed her again. “And people say you’re heartless,” she murmured after.

“Don’t spread this around,” Pansy grumbled. “That reputation keeps people from bothering me.”

Ginny laughed and took her hand. “Come on, you can conjure some stuff to send flying my way for me to dodge.”

As Ginny pulled her along, Pansy laughed as well. “Kisses _and_ getting to throw things at you? You sure know how to spoil a girl, Weasley.”

Ginny tossed a grin over her shoulder. “You ain’t seen nothing yet.”

**End.**

**Author's Note:**

> If you enjoyed reading this, I'd really appreciate a comment to let me know, or [reblog this post](https://knowyourincantations.tumblr.com/post/187409277053/bartering-for-a-kiss-ginnypansy) on tumblr so others might see it too =)


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